T2: Trainspotting

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No, the liquid metal T-1000 isn’t in this sequel to the 1996 indie house hit about feckless junkie mates Renton (Ewan McGregor), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner), and their older, violent pal Begbie (Robert Carlyle), but it might have livened up the proceedings. It’s hard to top the tasting-blood exhilaration of the original Trainspotting’s opening scene, with Renton’s tennies frantically pounding the Edinburgh pavement to Iggy Pop’s “Lust for Life” as they’re being chased by the cops. Director Danny Boyle’s back for this one, and the sequel’s opening shot makes a witty parallel of Renton’s feet pounding a treadmill in a comfortable gym, a new metaphor for running and running and never getting anywhere – that is, until Renton collapses and shoots across the carpet in cardiac, not criminal, arrest.

The original movie made McGregor a star, and he’s still a devil charmer here, despite the mileage made apparent by intercut clips of him as a baby-faced, model-lean